If I said it once, I said it, well, more than once: I thought that Omar Minaya (and especially) Jerry Manuel were being scapegoated (at least to some extent) by the people in charge. I'm not saying that no blame should be put on the people whose job it is to produce victories. I'm saying that using words like "unacceptable" and "anguish" about four seasons which included seasons with 88 and 89 wins, four seasons in which the Mets won over 50% of the time, was rather disingenuous.
Had ownership apologized for 2009 and 2010, year truly poor performance was displayed, I'd understand. Had ownership pled guilty for 4 consecutive playoff-less seasons, I might understand. But the way I read the letter they sent to fans on October 4, they were expressing "anguish" for the Mets performance since 2006. A period in which they won more than they lost! "Unhappiness"? Fine? "Unmet expectations?" Absolutely. But "anguish?" To me that's scapegoating.
Disingenuous or not, I think that ownership has done a good job of exciting a fan base which, let's be honest, has had rather little excitement in over 2 years.
Sandy Alderson, who as you've no doubt heard was recently named General Manager, has plenty of experience as a GM. Alderson was the architect of the great A's teams of the late 1980s and early 1990s, which contained stars such as Mark McGwire, Rickey Henderson, Jose Canseco and Dennis Eckersley, and reached the World Series three straight years (winning one).* He's known for respecting sabermetrics, and was a lawyer before he was the A's GM.
*He also hired Art Howe, for whatever that's worth.
I can't say I'm convinced that Omar should have been fired.* But when you take into account the intellect, experience and past success of Alderson (as well as the simple fact that he's a fresh face) I think that Sandy is the man for the job.
*I'm not convinced that he shouldn't have, either. I think that the argument GIVEN against him was weak; that's not to say that there was no good argument against him.
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